The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Karnataka in do or die situation

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Sunday, Dec 09, 2007
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Karnataka in do or die situation

Special Correspondent

Mysore: Karnataka finds itself in a do-or-die situation going into the fifth round clash in the Ranji Trophy Group A super-league clash against Saurashtra. The next four days at the Gangothri Glades stadium here will determine if Karnataka will make much headway in this edition for it has a formidable Delhi at home and an unpredictable Maharashtra, at Ratnagiri, to play in the remaining outings.

Barring the innings and 126-run win over Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka has done little of note against Mumbai, Tamil Nadu or even Rajasthan. The batsmen’s failure in the first innings of the three matches led Karnataka to concede the first innings lead and coach Vijay Bharadwaj needs to address this issue.

Against Mumbai and Rajasthan, the batting came good only in the second knock, though captain Yere Goud’s unbeaten century came against odds in the first knock against Rajasthan. Except veteran Sunil Joshi the Karnataka bowlers have been spraying around and need to show a lot more discipline.

Saurasthra, with 10 points, is a notch above Karnataka having won against Rajasthan and earning a first innings lead over HP. Its batting has been felt wanting though captain Jaydev Shah was confident off a good showing, especially after its recovery against TN last week.

The pitch, different from the one that was used last week against Rajasthan is expected to be slow paced and should assist the spinners over the days, especially if the sun does not come out in full fury for the next 48 hours.

The teams (from): Karnataka: Yere Goud (captain), Robin Uthappa, K.B. Pawan, C. Raghu, Sudhindra Shinde, Thilak Naidu, B. Akhil, Sunil Joshi, R. Vinay Kumar, N.C. Aiyappa, K.P. Appanna, Devraj T. Patil, Bharath Chipli, Udit B. Patel, S. Dhananjaya. Coach: Vijay Bharadwaj.

Saurashtra: Jaydev Shah (captain), Sitanshu Kotak, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sagar Jogiani (wk), Kanaiya Vaghela, Kamlesh Makhwana, Sandeep Jobanputra, Sandip Maniar, Prati Mehta, Firoz Bambhaniya, Jayesh Odedra, Rakesh Dhruve, Ravindra Jadeja, Saurya Sandiya, Sheldon Jackson. Coach: Debu Mitra.

Umpires: Shekon (Punjab) and Balwant Sharma (Rajasthan).

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